Dangerous associations: Ayers, Wright, Khalidi, what else?

What do the Ayers, Wright, Khalidi names have in common? Well, as far as this election is concerned, 1- all of them have been associated in some way or another with Obama; and 2- they all are notorious for their links to ideologies or ideologues that embrace hatred, even violence in some cases:

- Bill Ayers,

''I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.'' Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground

- Jeremiah Wright,

"Obama's Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11"

- Rashid Khalidi,

"From 1976 to 1982, Mr. Khalidi was a director in Beirut of the official Palestinian press agency, WAFA. Later he served on the PLO "guidance committee" at the Madrid peace conference.

In bringing professor Khalidi to Morningside Heights from the University of Chicago, Columbia also got itself a twofer of Palestinian activism and advocacy. Mr. Khalidi's wife, Mona, who also served in Beirut as chief editor of the English section of the WAFA press agency, was hired as dean of foreign students at Columbia's SIPA, working under Dean Anderson. In Chicago, the Khalidis founded the Arab American Action Network, and Mona Khalidi served as its president. A big farewell dinner was held in their honor by AAAN with a commemorative book filled with testimonials from their friends and political allies. These included the left wing anti-war group Not In My Name, the Electronic Intifada, and the ex-Weatherman domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. (There were also testimonials from then-state Senator Barack Obama and the mayor of Chicago.)"

As anybody who has been following the campaign events this week will tell you, Obama has still to answer in a satisfactory manner the extent of his association with all these people. When the hatred-filled words of Jeremiah Wright surfaced back in the primary season, it took Obama quite a long time to finally disown him. It's very hard to believe that Obama didn't know of Wright's hate speeches given how close their relationship is described in this youtube video for instance. Then came the Ayers thing and he said he was a guy who lived in his neighborhood. But as the previous CNN investigation shows, their relationship was deeper than that. We see the same pattern with Khalidi.

Whoever brings race as the issue Obama's critics are trying to push when they question these associations doesn't seem to realize that Ayers is white, Wright is black and Khalidi is Palestinian. Racism against whom?

The McCain campaign is saying the the issue here is one of trust between Obama and the American people. I think that there is for sure a trust issue between Obama and Americans, but that's old news. After Obama's numerous flip-flops I am surprised that the issue of his untrustworthyness is brought up now. I, on the other hand, take issue with the associations themselves.

I have said numerous times in my comments that I know first hand the damage that these guys , and their ideologues, have caused in Spain. There too, there are very cheap politicians who don't mind to "pal around" with terrorists or their ideologues. I find each one of those cheap politicians despicable. And for the very same reason, and based only on what we know for sure about the extent of his dealings with the Ayers/Wright/Khalidi I find Obama a disgraceful individual totally unworthy of the US Presidency.